The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-02-23

gun, lost my hunt lost slug, and
came near TO losing my reputation for
truthfulness-w would have lost IL If the
Mexicans had not asserted that they
had found me in the tree, That ended
my bear-hunting for years.
1.-THE next bear saw" said Pratt af
ter a minutes silence, "came very near
killing me, and the narrow escape |
made gave me Il distaste for bear hunt
ing for sport. One day in the fall of so,
my comrade and / thought we had
earned rest. and we decided to go bear
hunting. We loaded pack animal,
took orr rifles, and started for the hills.
Eeittef 0f "a had ever shot grizzly
bear. We knew that they were danger
GUS animals to fool with, but that was
all we knew. The next afternoon we
got into what we thought was likely
bear country, rs there were plenty OF
bear signs. We made our camp, and
the following morning started on foot
into the hills Presently we came to a
point of chapparal, which stretched hor-
izontally along steep hillside. Below
il was narrow brush-covered valley.
on the other side of which was another
steep, chapparal covered thicket,
through winch no man can force his
way. We decided 10 separate. one walk
ing above the thicket, the other to walk
along its lower edge. The hillside was
rough, steep and boulder-strewn. AT
ter walking about quarter of mile !
saw n well beaten bear trail, which led
into the chapparal, which was about
fifty yards wide at this point. The
bear trail formed tunnel through the
chapparal. knecled down and looked
through tho tunnel and saw the valley
close below. | stepped back up the
hill to overlook the thicket to see my
companion. could not see him, but
called to him, telling of the tunn ell
Looking across the valley i saw large
grizzly bear sitting OH the other hill
side. The bear was about 25O yards
from me. / was armed with a heavy
muzzle-oading rifle, and believed i
could Kill the bear. | rested my rifle
on bowlder, took long, careful, aim,
and touched the hair trigger, The bear
fell over. yelled to my comrade that
| was coming through the tunnel, and
ran TO its mouth dropped on nv
h ands and knees. and. with my rifle in
my hand, began to crawl through it. |
heard my comrado shout warningly to
me, but was too much excited to
heed what he said. even if ] understood
the words. With my head bent down
/ crawled rs fast as could. ! heard
noise in the valley as though stones
were rolling down the hill.
L looked up and saw that
the great bear was alive. and that
he was approaching the tunnel at full
speed. 1t was evident that he had seen
me as ! ran into the chapparal, and that
he was determined to catch me. l then
understood why my comrade had call
ed me. Instantly realized that was
going to be killed in II horrible manner.
/ could not get through the tunnel be-
fore the bear entered its lower mouth.
/ could not back out. | could not turn
around. ] had not time TO load my
rifle, and / had not sufficient room to
fight effectively with my knife. Nearer
aud nearer came the bear My heart
ceased to beat almost. | was in Il regu-
lar funk. Tho bear was almost ut the
blood trickling from wound in his
neck. His eyes were shining and his
teeth glistening. In another instant he
would enter the tunnel. Just as his
shadow darkened the entrance saw
puff of powder smoke shoot against his
head and he fell. and then. indistinctly,
/ heard the faint report of a rifle. 1t
sounded as though 1t was mile away,
Directly | saw NV comrade seat himself
Oh the bear and heard him call TO me.
was too weak to answer him. | Law
down in the tunnel to rest for an in
slant, and then crawled out into the
daylight and sat on the bear alongside
of my comrade and grasped his hand
strongly. That was a good comrade.
"Ahw said Pratt, "he was a man.
When he saw that the bear was not
dead, and that he was running for the
tunnel, he knew that would be killed
If the bear caught me in there. There
was brit one thing for him to do-he
had TO kill the bear or get killed. de
had but one shot. as there were no
breech-loading guns in those days. He
sank behind the bowlder close to the
mouth OF the tunnel, cooked his fle,
brought it 10 his shoulder and waited.
When the bear. intent on catching me.
ran into his rifles sights he pulled the
trigger. Fortunately the ball entered
the bears ear and killed him instantly.
II does not sound like great feat. but
not one man in thousand has sufficient
nerve and devoted courage to do II"
Pratt ceased to talk. The recollec-
lions of his old comrade trooped around
him. He was affected. He turned
away from me, arose. walked of to the